Actually that's very similar to the way we've mudded floors here for a long time. The only differences would be that we would probably add some type of welded wire to the mud if it wasn't bonded to the slab, which I didn't see them doing. Plus, we would have added our water to the mud while it was being mixed. We would have also used thinset to bond the tiles down, not a slurry.

Sand and cement are cheap products, adding the wire and thinset would add to the cost quite a bit. If the slurry bonds good to the tiles then I think it would last a long time. Our thinsets are much better than a slurry though.

I've seen a lot of Saltillo installed very similar to this and they were very difficult to remove. But, bonding Saltillo isn't like bonding porcelain.

They do things different than we do, I wouldn't want to climb on top of what I've just installed. I assume that's what they are doing. I do like the no nonsense way of doing it though.

Figured I’d put in my .02, maybe Shady at Best will butt in too. Born and Raised in CA. Lived in Sacramento for the three years but had enough with the homeless, thug and liberal population, constant price gouging and tool theft from other trades. Was annoying dealing with mazaratti expectations for run down Mazda budgets, even in the affluent areas. Overall was good to go to the city and see if I could make it there. Happy to be back down in Turlock now, doing work for honest folk. Fornunate to be surrounded by rural communities doing work for farmers and having a conservative environment. Some parts of CA are polluted with libtards, always stay away from Indians and Asians as far as clients go (been burned enough to know better than to take the risk in desperate times), just about everywhere is expensive, cheapest gas is $3.20/gal right now. Whole state was damn near on fire, lost our annual campsite which is nothing compared to what others lost. Lots of people are headed to AZ and TX to escape the prices and ruin those states.

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El niño, Chris
Working to make a living... or something close to it.

There's usually something stamped on the plastic saying, "finish wall" or something like that. If not, look at your paper work. It's possible the finish tile surface is supposed to be flush with the outside edge.

If the instructions doesn't mention it then get the trim out and put it together and you'll be able to figure it out. I usually estimate my scratch, finish coat and tile to be 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 thick from the studs out.